Five

Tomorrow you finish your first year of school (even if it is just practice Kindergarten). An entire year of drop offs and pick ups, packing lunches, school programs, awards ceremonies, class trips. I can’t believe how much you’ve grown this year. You went to school a timid toddler too shy to speak to anyone and today I watched you race around the park with all the friends you’ve made. A year and a half ago I was carting you to speech therapy willing you to speak and suddenly you’re on the verge of reading.

I wish I could fully articulate what a funny little kid you’ve become. Your favorite thing in the world is to watch YouTube videos about Legos. We watch Lego toy reviews, Lego how to’s, Lego animations, Lego Movie clips, anything and everything that has to do with Legos. We recently visited a Legoland Discover Center and to be honest I was a little afraid that it broke your brain because of the sheer joy involved. You and your sister are quite particular about the music we listen to on any given day, mostly you go for whatever kids songs we have in the car but occasionally you request songs that you hear me play. Your eating habits haven’t changed at all, you still survive on chicken nuggets and shredded cheese.

I can’t lie, looking at pictures of how much you’ve grown makes me a little emotional. You’ve truly turned the corner from toddler to little boy. As much as that tugs at my heart, it helps that you’re still very much my baby. I get anxious when I think that we might be nearing the end of you wanting to hold my hand while we snuggle on the couch watching cartoons. I don’t care that you still want to sleep in our bed because I know that someday all too soon you’ll be too grown up for that.

Things I want to remember:

The look of triumph on your face when you get fully dressed by yourself

The way you sings two lines from The Lego Movie theme song at random intervals (Everything really IS awesome)

The way you miss your sister after only a few hours apart from her

The way you refer to plugging your ears as “putting your listeners in”

All the words you mispronounce, none of which I can actually think of at this time (I promise to start writing those down)